Ongoing Regulation for Registered Charities

Preparation, Auditing and Filing of Accounts

As of 1st April, 2007, the statutory requirements relating to the audit of Manx Registered Charity accounts was amended (via the coming into operation of the Audit Act 2006). Whilst previously, section 5 of the Charities Registration Act 1989 required all Manx registered charities to file fully audited accounts with the General Registry, under the amended section 5 a new ‘three tier’ audit/examination requirement was introduced based upon the annual ‘gross income’ of the charity.

In summary the revised audit/examination requirements are:

Charity’s Gross Income in the Accounting Year	Statutory Requirement for External Examination of Charity’s Accounts
Less than or equal to £5,000	No requirement for external examination (charities still have to file accounts with the General Registry within 6 months of year end.)
Greater than £5,000 but less than or equal to £100,000	Full Audit or an independent examination by an accountant, a qualified ‘independent examiner’ or a person approved by the First Deemster
Greater than £100,000	Full Audit by an accountant or a person approved by the First Deemster

Whilst these amendments were not implemented until the 1st April, they apply to all charity accounts with a year end date of 1st November, 2006 or later.

However, it should also be remembered that, in addition to these statutory requirements, the charity will also have to comply with any specific account requirements detailed within its governing document (e.g. constitution/trust deed/memorandum and articles of association etc.).

In order to implement these amendments, new regulations (The Charities Regulations 2007) have been made by their Honours The Deemsters which were approved by Tynwald on the 21st March.

In summary, these new regulations:

Prescribe the qualifications for independent examiners (in addition to accountants or approved persons – please see enclosed list);
Prescribe the form of the independent examiners reports;
Define the term Gross Income as it should be applied to charity accounts in determining statutory audit/examination requirements.

In addition, the General Registry has developed guidance on independent examinations to assist charities and independent examiners.

Copies of:

The amended Charities Registration Act 1989
The new Charities Regulations 2007;
The Report to be used by Independent Examiners (in editable form);
Guidance On Independent Examinations;

are available for download at the bottom of this webpage.

It is anticipated that these amendments will assist Manx charities in fulfilling their statutory obligations whilst maintaining appropriate accountability to the public.

Notification of Changes

Details of any changes to the charity, its governing instrument, officials, etc must be filed at the General Registry, within one month after the change. Changes to be notified include:

Changes of officials and their addresses and other contact details;
Changes of the charity’s address and other contact details;
Changes to the governing instrument (before making any changes to a governing instrument, it is advisable to ensure that these changes will not affect the charity’s charitable status.)

Downloadable Documents